Steam Deck Interview: Valve Says Slimmer Steam Deck Has Drawbacks, Offers Dock Status Update

ign.com:

The Steam Deck is just over seven months old now, and Valve’s device has evolved considerably since our review criticized its compatibility issues and other problems. A host of updates have addressed everything from the fan curve to the system’s refresh rate, and Valve has been successful in getting more and more units into the hands of fans. In that respect, the Steam Deck has been very much a success.

Still, fans have plenty of questions about the device, including the status of the missing dock – briefly spotted at the recent Tokyo Game Show – and Valve’s plans for the next iteration of the Steam Deck. To get some insight on these topics and more, we caught up with Steam Deck UX designer Lawrence Yang and business development executive Erik Peterson at Tokyo Game Show, where we peppered them with questions about battery life, official support for dual-booting Windows, the possibility of a slimmer Steam Deck, and more.

Check out our full interview below!

IGN: It's been about seven months since the Steam Deck was originally released. I'm curious, what do you know now that you didn't know back in February?

Erik Peterson: I would say that one of the things that we've learned is just the way that people use it. We had some ideas about how we thought people might enjoy playing with it. At least in my mind, I was thinking, "It's portable. People are going to be playing it, of course, on an airplane or on a train or a bus or whatever." But, at least when we were playing it at home when we first started getting our test units, just having the ability to play something on your couch, or around the house, or whatever... getting away from your PC that you've been spending all day on during the pandemic and being able to just enjoy